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29 thoughts on “Why Precious Leaders Fail”

Fantastic list… some precious leaders also have finicky needs they expect everyone to know and accomodate… a diet coke waiting for them on arrival, coffee delivered at a certain time each day, grapes prepared just so…

The problem with preciousness as you have described it Dan is that it leads to issues of separate-ness and hierarchy. When we do this we help turn the precious leaders into empty caricatures of themselves. Followers stop questioning their ideas and they stop examining themselves. Everything they say becomes an unchallengeable truth, whether it is or not.
How do you address it? Authenticity, openness, accountability, accepting that we do indeed have feet of clay.

“Direct report do not understand the pressures squeezing you” is so true in the organizations. Middle managers and front line staff have their own priorities and top management have their own. Where top management points towards lower management for the target not achieved, lower management perceive top management incapable and most of the time ” puppets”.
The people at the top, especially feel that they are important. I agree with you that problem starts from that feelings. And in order to show their effectiveness to the board or stakeholders they make optimistic or favorable picture irrespective of reality. Why they do so is nothing but keeping their position unquestioned. They fear to raise real issues and takes credit of success.
And This seems universal phenomena. I strongly feel that leaders should realize that lower level or front line staff are more precious as they have better ideas for improvement of products and services. So, leaders should invite and appreciate ideas of all the employees. They should give credit to lower level of management and should be ready to raise issues or take actions that are hard and need debate and discussion.

Your article was a very good reminder that stresses experienced by managers in the middle ranks of an organization are ubiquitous to most who hold the title across the enterprise, regardless of department or function. Better to realize and adopt a “we’re all in this together” type of an approach rather than risk isolating oneself and being labeled a self absorbed primadonna.

One small note on the metaphor. When Gollum makes references to “Precious” I think he is really referring to The Ring.

While I greatly enjoy your articles, my inner geek forces me to offer this small correction.

Gollum referred to the one ring as ‘My Precious” He was completely taken by the magic of the one ring and therefore defined it as the most precious thing in the world to him (to the point that he began talking to it and would refer to it as ‘my precious’).

That may not have been overly clear in the movies but in the book when Gollum discovers that Bilbo had left with the ring he wails that the nasty hobbit had stolen his precious.

“There is nothing new under the sun.” Whatever you’re going through, someone else has been there and done that. It is key to have a friend, mentor or family member who you can trust. They will in my experience humble you and get you back to ground zero versus floating up in the 9th heaven. You become precious when you have only one view of yourself and the world – your own.

How has the problem of preciousness expressed itself in your organization?

I love it…preciousness. I work in public sector procurement and the problem of “preciousness” rears its head here in many ways. Most often it is the refusal to accept solutions or standardization because you or your department is to “precious” and “unique” to adapt/adjust to solutions as the rest of the world has done. What we are doing when we allow this epidemic to spread is really creating more headaches for everybody else on the back end. Everybody wants it “their” way and as a result we end up with higher expenses and more time spent trying to make systems and people talk to each other or translate one to the other. It can be quite a challenge but have the courage to push the envelope and demand change is well worth it. You find that after an initial uproar there is usually very little disruption and what folks thought would result in great disaster or chaos actually goes smoothly.

How can leaders address the problem of preciousness?

This is tricky but I think you have to confront it. The challenge comes in depending upon what end of the food chain you are in. Its hard to deny the facts or the numbers. You may have to be patient and come up with a strategy that increases the likelihood of success when you confront. Do some pilots. Get some buy-in from non-precious allies. Be armed and ready, locked and loaded when you get ready to tackle the monstrosity of preciousness.

How can leaders address the problem of preciousness? For starters leaders shouldn’t take themselves to seriously. Leadership is a journey it takes time to create it and be it. Therefore remember that being authentic helps one find solutions naturally. Also allow someone else from the outside looking in define how precious you are as a leader that is most important.

“my precious” meaning obsession with the ring, a metaphor for ultimate power, is a fitting description of what brought Gollum to his demise. And sadly many “precious” leaders have the same horrific ending in their marriages, have no real friends, etc. Gollum and his precious became one and the same, so the analogy works in my opinion. Thank you for posting this Dan!

Many “precious points” made. I especially agree that any precious leader would do themselves a great service by hiring a coach whose outside eyes would not be afraid to tell the emperor that he/she is not wearing any cloths (another good metaphor). But as you point out clearly, they are so stuck within their own world that they are supremely challenged in seeing the value of a good set of outside eyes.